Presented at the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art – MuMa, the exhibition Photographing in Normandy (1840-1890). A pioneering dialogue between the arts aims to highlight the decisive role that Normandy played in the beginnings of photography. Exhibiting photographs on the occasion of the fifth edition of Normandie Impressionniste and especially for the 150th anniversary of the movement, makes perfect sense, as painting and photography have maintained close links, underpinned by a spirit of invention, of emulation and innovation which led to the renewal and multiplication of images in the nineteenth century.
The exhibition brings together masterpieces of painting and photography, from pioneers to the biggest names, including amateurs. Iconic works rub shoulders with rare or little-known works. The variety of formats and techniques allows us to understand the extraordinary technical abundance of these beginnings of photography. The paintings of Impressionist and pre-Impressionist painters come from the prestigious collections of the MuMa, the Musée d'Orsay, the Fine Arts museums of Amiens, Caen, Honfleur and Lyon (including Jongkind, among others). Courbet, Dubourg, Boudin, Pissarro, Monet …) alongside photographs by Hippolyte Bayard, Stéphanie Breton, Hippolyte Fizeau, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, the Macaire and Warnod brothers, John Ruskin, William Henry Fox Talbot … Near two hundred works are to be discovered.
A field of experimentation and innovation for the greatest photographers since the 1840s, whether inventors or artists, Normandy is the ideal place to measure the reciprocal influence of the arts. Photography records a rich heritage whose fragility and importance we then measure, follows the progress of the transformation of the coasts by seaside architecture and the arrival of rich summer visitors, seeks the picturesqueness of the countryside, tackles the scenes of genre and maritime views very clearly asserting his artistic ambitions.
The period covered by the exhibition extends from the first years when photographic techniques were disseminated, until the dawn of a new era, that of cinema and the democratization of photography, notably via photo clubs. The animated image was then close to marking the end of the century, and the creation of photographic companies reflected the renewed accessibility to the process. The precursors, the professionals and enlightened amateurs are no longer the only creators of images. Another story begins.
Photographing in Normandy 1840-10890
25 May-22 September 2024
Details: https://www.muma-lehavre.fr/fr/expositions/photographier-en-normandie
Image: Alphonse DAVANNE, N°2 Etretat Left cliff , 1864, Print on albumen paper from glass negative, 24 x 31 cm. Paris - National Library of France
Comments
Coincidentally, I have come across a book entitled "The Lens of Impressionism - Photography and Painting along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874".
Shows scientists such as Hippolyte Fizeau crossing over into artistic expression through the daguerreotype medium. I am just finishing a study that includes his contribution to the daguerreotype process. I would be interested to hear if similar routes were taken in the UK c1840.